Getting away from the “Start” mindset

I’ve never been a big fan of lots of icons sitting on my Windows desktop; I have a few key ones, then use a highly organized Start menu to gain access to my applications. So when I started working with my Mac I adopted the same mindset: Push some key applications that I access frequently into the Dock, then hit the Finder and switch to Applications for everything else.

I mentioned this to my friend Dylan and he said "Why are you doing that? Just use the Spotlight to open your applications". Spotlight? If you’re a Mac user you’re probably aware of the feature – hitting Command-Space gives immediate access. Once pointed out to me I find myself using it for more and more.

Dylan’s rather astute observation was "Why would you need to organize everything? It’s a computer – shouldn’t it do that work for you?". Yeah, I guess it should!

So now when I need to grab an application that isn’t sitting in my Dock I just hit Command-Space and type in what I need.

I also found some really cool little tips of things that you can do with Spotlight – it’s actually a pretty decent calculator and will quickly load words into the dictionary. You can find out more from this page on the Apple web site.

Comments

Hello there. If you believe the spotlight is a good way to find applications, you’re thinking correct. However there is a much faster and slicker alternative. Personally I find this to be the most useful utility I have on my mac.